The present application relates to improving battery efficiency when tracking shipment items, and more specifically, to reducing the electrical power being used for transmitting shipment item tracking status messages.
A shipment item, such as a package, a container carrying packages, or any other item being shipped may be tracked throughout the transport of the shipment item from a source to a destination. For example, an entity handling the various stages of shipping the shipment item may use an active tracking device (e.g., an active radio frequency identification device (RFID)) to track a location/status of the shipment item. RFID systems are typically either passive or active. Passive RFID systems use devices or tags with no internal power source. Passive RFID devices are powered by the electromagnetic energy transmitted from an RFID reader. Active RFID systems use battery-powered RFID devices or tags that continuously broadcast their own signal. Active RFID devices are commonly used as “beacons” to accurately track the real-time location of higher value assets for which the additional expense of active RFID devices is justified. Thus, the above-described active device may be implemented as a powered system that can track its own location and communicate that location periodically to a remotely located computing device, such as a server, using cellular or satellite communication network. However, battery life is a concern in such active tracking devices.